How & Why Our Extended Adventure Came Together
A lot of people ask me about the genesis of this trip, about how it came about and perhaps most pertinently how it was possible for myself and my wife to take career breaks to embark upon some amazing adventures. I have written elsewhere about the reasons to just go out and do a trip like this. For ourselves, there is obviously the long (and no doubt torturous) version of this, but let’s stick to the short version for now.
“From New York, it was New Orleans, Texas and an internal flight to Denver, Colorado, where our national park journey started in earnest. Travelling back and forth between Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, we visited numerous national and state parks before heading to California.”
Yes, travel and exploration has always been a key driver for both of us, but this morphed into a far more visceral yearning during the Covid pandemic. Counterintuitively, this wasn’t simply the result of being cooped up at home in London for the best part of two years. In fact, the enforced lockdowns were for us a very positive period of being able to spend more time together and more time focused on things that we enjoyed, from yoga, cooking and watching films to gardening, photography and bird watching.
Instead, it prompted something more fundamental – a reassessment of our lives, our priorities and how we wanted to spend our time. Whilst the time working from home was great in one way, it also meant that it boiled down our day jobs to their core essence. Given that we both worked in the centre of London, there was a huge amount to enjoy ‘around’ our jobs, be it walks in the Royal Parks at lunchtime, the dizzying array of pub, bar and restaurant options or the chance to take in any number of exhibitions or museum visits. With all of these stripped away, it seemed that all that was left was an endless procession of meetings, documentation and the attendant stresses of corporate life.
It became obvious to us both that we needed to escape from this. Ideally this would be permanently, but if that wasn’t possible then at least temporarily in order to ‘test the hypothesis’ and see what was possible. The seeds of a ‘big trip’ had been sown.
The Planning Process
Having previously enjoyed the carefree, loosely-planned and extended backpacking trips of my early twenties, the last few years had seen me wholeheartedly embrace the concept of travel planning. Or perhaps that should that be ‘Planning’ with a capital ‘P’, encompassing everything from the itinerary down to the hitlist of bars, restaurants and points of cultural interest. Initially this was the result of trying to maximise the time available - when you are trying to take full advantage of five weeks holiday allowance per year, then knowing how to get the most of your long weekend in Bilbao or Budapest without wasting time once you are there becomes critical.
Ultimately this morphed into something that I relished, my level of enjoyment almost approaching that of the trip itself as I buried myself in research, planning and fantasising about what we would do once we arrived. Therefore, amidst the repetitive drudgery of my day-to-day corporate life, the chance to escape into my thoughts and my travel research became something nourishing and self-sustaining.
Putting Together an Itinerary
No doubt the nature of the Covid lockdowns also played a role in determining the locations, vistas and experiences that we sought. I’m sure that two years of being confined to our small apartment and garden in London (combined with the occasional foray into the beautiful, yet safe and familiar English countryside) helped to create that desire to experience something monumental and immersive.
Amidst this, the elemental beauty, variety and mythical nature of the landscapes of America’s national parks became more and more prominent in our thoughts. It was then time to delve into some serious research and consideration of the 423 (yes, 423!) national parks in the USA, and specifically how to seek a combination of landscapes and experiences whilst combining this with visiting friends, family and a few particularly appealing urban locations.
For us, the first stop on our journey across the United States simply had to be New York. Not only because it seemed one of the most logical entry points, but because my wife had never visited and I had not been since I was a teenager. Therefore, in spite of the fact that it wasn’t really part of our core route or consistent with the ‘theme’ of our trip, we couldn’t pass up the chance of spending a whirlwind long weekend there to kick things off. You can read about our time there in this article and about our food & drink highlights here.
From there, it was New Orleans, Texas and an internal flight to Denver, Colorado, where our national park journey started in earnest. Travelling back and forth between Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, we visited numerous national and state parks before heading to California.
For whatever reason, other destinations across the globe had always called more loudly to me than the United States. Maybe the sense of familiarity from film and television made me seek out those countries and regions about which I knew less, or maybe it was the knowledge that it would be almost impossible to distil a visit down to something manageable given the vast and diverse nature of the country. Now however the time was right, and the need to go felt palpable.
My wife felt similarly. Hailing from Brazil and having lived in Europe for over a decade, her preference had always been to explore Asia and get to know as much of Europe as possible. By the end of our trip, she was happy to admit that her mind had been blown and that a lot of her initial disinterest was more down to ignorance of everything that a trip across the United States could offer.
Putting a Plan into Action
So, the itinerary was there, just waiting to be put into action, and it felt like it was calling out to me and gnawing a hole in my soul as it sat there unheeded on my OneDrive.
Having finally summoned the courage to quit a job (me) and take an extended sabbatical (my wife), phase one of our journey was always going to involve an extended trip to Brazil to spend time with my wife’s family. This resulted in an incredible few months, which you will be able to read all about in a subsequent post.
With there still much uncertainty over covid variants and travel restrictions, confirming some actual possible travel dates didn’t occur until very close to the departure dates. Flights to the US were purchased whilst sitting on the balcony of my sister-in-law’s house in Brazil, and accommodation, connecting flights and car hire were all hastily arranged in the two weeks leading up to our departure.
What follows is a series of posts from our trip – rather than a blow-by-blow account of the whole journey, this is a mixture of day-by-day entries, lists, highlights and tips together with a range of photos that we took along the way.
The Considered Journey is a travel blog focused on travel reviews, travel tips and travel guides, all focused on travel inspiration with a view to helping you make the most of your trip and maximise your travel time.
Having travelled across Europe, Asia, South America, North America, and parts of Africa, we have a host of experiences to share with you. As our focus is on helping you make the most of your trip and maximise your travel time, we highlight the best things to eat, best things to drink, best places to go, and best things to do. In addition, we have written a range of airline reviews, hotel reviews, airport lounge reviews and credit card reviews, and also cover topics such as travelling as a couple, career break travel and sabbatical travel.
We understand that circumstances vary from trip to trip, so we cover everything from luxury travel to some more budget travel options, and the traditional to the modern.
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